When Times are Dark
by Xemtlenc
Summary: [Act 2] Rewind time to these consequences, to do it countless times can cause changes so powerful that we no longer recognize our reality. Max will have to face the results of her last choice, but will she manage to live with this decision? What disasters can be worse than the destruction of a city and the loss of its best friend? AU!


**Notes: This chapter is a layout of the characters, how the story will work and the differences with the original timelines of LiS and BTS that we all know. Another major difference is that the main characters will not be seen (they are mentioned for the first chapter, they will be present from the next chapter), I would like to talk about other characters before returning to them.**

 **Warning: as you warn me, English is not my mother tongue and I translate literally, so be indulgent, please.**

 **...**

 **When Times are Dark**

 **Episode I: Noumenon**

 **01 - Brave New World**

 _An ambulance parks unceremoniously at the entrance to the hospital, two stretcher-bearers come out of the back door of the vehicle and rush into the building's interior with the injured person on the stretcher. They hurry to the emergency room, people on their way away on seeing the seriousness of the situation, while a doctor checks the condition of the patient._

 _"What happened?" the doctor asks the situation of one of the stretcher bearers._

 _"A young woman of 18 years. She was pulled to the ribcage, her breathing is irregular and fainted during the trip!"_

 _Going quickly to the emergency room, the little group unaware they were followed by a blue haired girl. A mustache security guard is right behind her and tries to calm her down, shouting her name for her attention and trying to calm her down._

 _In the operating room, the doctor in charge cuts the pink top with "Jane" and a drawing of a white doe printed on it to release the blood-soaked garment annoying their work. Once dismissed, he has the sad news of finding that the injury is located in the heart, her chances of survival are very low but he will not give up as easily._

 _The doctor team fought in the next hour to keep the patient in a stable condition, they removed the bullet from the heart but unfortunately removing the tiny metal object, the surgeon in charge of the operation broke the pulmonary artery, causing the machine to measure the heartbeat to panic. The horrible sound echoes throughout the room and announces the end of the patient._

 _As if she had felt it, the blue haired girl entered the operating room and tries to make her way to the patient, while a doctor uses the defibrillator._

 _"Max!" the punk-looking young woman cries when she sees the fragile state of the girl lying in the middle of all. She had blood on her hands and a little in her hair, blood that was not hers. She had held her in her arms earlier crying hysterically, begging her not to leave her._

 _She tries to escape from two doctors blocking her as well as the security guard who had led her to her entreaties, she screams with desperate energy to the dying girl to fight and not to die on her, she yells at those who prevent her from joining her._

 _Despite all their effort and supplications of the bluenette, the scary "beep" echoes in the room and the heart rate shows an endless line._

 _The doctors finally abandon the deceased patient, they turn off the devices before leaving the room with the bluenette who shouted not to abandon her. Only a doctor remained in the operating room, he lowers his mask to let his light and trendy beard appear, his brown eyes look with fascination at the cadaverously pale body of the young woman for a moment before abandoning his medical attire. He's finally taking a state-of-the-art camera out of nowhere._

 _"I warned you Max, ' always take the shot' but you had to be too curious" the man takes several pictures in different positions "but it's an evil for a good, you perfectly collect the innocence I'm looking for in death, it's your gift Max."_

 _With every shooting he takes, the room is rapidly degraded as the clock ticks very quickly, too quickly to be followed. The girl's body decomposes more quickly, turning from a pale pink to a sickly green, muscles and organs are reduced until there is only skin on the bones. Except for cheeks that are hollow, only the face remains almost intact, confirming the identity of what was the girl in her lifetime._

 _The man brings the camera lens closer to her pale face, especially her closed eyes, her many freckles, and her half-open lips. The appearance of the "doctor" has deteriorated to become a living skeleton. His glasses, beard/mustache unshaven and brown hair are the only clues of what was the flesh and blood's man._

 _"You belong to me forever, Maxine."_

 _Click!_

* * *

A girl with short blond hair recedes slightly to the click emitted from her camera, drops of sweat perla from her forehead.

She takes a look around, the main building of the Blackwell Academy has not given way to this squalid hospital, photographs of their photography teacher are still exposed around the campus of Blackwell and have not left place to various medical equipment. She notices the couple of people sitting at the other table on her right, and considering the slightly cool weather and the few leaves falling from the trees, they must be still in autumn.

"Tori, are you still with us?" a familiar voice awakes her from her confused thoughts.

Tori, or Victoria Chase of her real name, turns to her best friend Taylor Christensen, leaning against the tree closest to the table. Before having this dream awake a few minutes earlier, she took pictures of the pretty blonde posing for her, leaning against the tree with a bent leg, a playful look in front of the lens of her camera.

At this moment, Taylor looked at her with concern, now straightening up and her hands resting on her hips, wondering what the problem was when originally Victoria had asked her to pose for her as the sun is in good shape and the game of shadow & light by the tree is ideal for taking pictures.

"No, it's nothing, I- I had a dust on the lens and it gave a strange image" Victoria replies, hoping that her lie would be quite convincing for her curious friend.

The beautiful girl with long blonde hair looks at her with a skeptical look, folding her arms, really not convinced but she shrugs as if she does not care. Vicotria knows that she will be entitled to questions later in the evening, or maybe her friend will wait for her to talk to her ... it will depend on her mood, she presumes.

"Ouhhhh, an grime on one of Blackwell's Queen's property, and no planned execution against the servant responsible for making sure her things are clean and impeccable? The sky will fall on our heads!"

Victoria turns to the mocking voice of the little brunette girl and gives her a look annoyed.

"Technically, you should take care of that because you're one of my servants" she retorts but as expected, she is greeted by a slight rebuff.

"But yes! And so much to do, I'll only have to do your homework so you can coo with your boyfriend?" the brunette laughs a little before returning to her notebook.

"Courtney, do not include me in your childishness" the only boy in the group slightly scolding the girl, but he knows very well that this is the usual exchange between the girl trio.

The aspiring photographer sighs softly and turns his head towards the football field, looking at the five towers overlooking the city from their heights. She is looking at her friends again, Taylor is busy looking at one of the exhibit boards that contains one of their photographic teacher Ashley Gonzalez's pictures, Courtney draws her next creation on her sketchbook (like most of time when she is not busy) and Nathan reads a philosophical book "Beyond Good and Evil", complete synthesis of Nietzsche. Seeing that they were all in their little worlds, Victoria looks again at the steel towers.

The landscape has changed in recent years, and Victoria has a hard time remembering what the city looks like before the Prescott Foundation finds large deposits of precious minerals in the basement of the city, thanks to geological mapping.

Following this new economic expansion, the Prescotts or more precisely, Sean Prescott, the father of her boyfriend, invested a lot of funds and he took advantage of these new resources to multiply his projects in this little seaside town, increasing the real estate projects and the many purchases to acquire the city, as if he was centralizing his power in one place. According to the latest news from the Blackwell Totem, or the queen of gossips (aka Juliet Watson), about 90% of Arcadia are at Prescotts and its subsidiaries, the rest are either to the city and its occupants or to competitors wanting to take advantage of the economic boom of Arcadia or ambitious young people wanting their share of the pie. The small town, that had only about a thousand inhabitants (counting all the area), now owns more than 4400 inhabitants with new developments: buildings, factories, various shops, there is even a tramway network and a shopping center now.

It was painful to drive around town with all this work at the same time (fortunately most of the work was south of the city to increase Arcadia Bay), but with all the hired labor, most of the construction sites were completed in record time. There are only a few jobs here and there, all belonging to the Prescott and forbidden to the public. For change ...

Although the implementation of a restructuring of the city was drastic and expensive, Arcadia has lost nothing of its superb. It has become one of the cleanest and greenest cities on the planet, according to a study by WOHE (World Organization on Health and the Environment, created in 2006 by more than 150 states) in 2012, thanks to anti-pollution rules, hybrid cars, non-polluting factories, its biological fuel and surveillance drones.

Today, polluting in Arcadia Bay will cost more than a fine for poor parking on the spot handicapped. The Prescott have been very tough on this point.

The city has become more animated today, it's classic for a quiet little country town becoming a small urban town, but for the students of the prestigious Blackwell Academy, almost nothing has changed. Just the fence around the school and the lack of greenery around, for security, tranquility and respect for private life of students, and a physical separation of some private buildings around.

Inspired by the shadow effect cast off on the towering towers, and also the flight of birds that seems to cross the concrete and glass towers to her perspective, Victoria raises her camera and takes a few shots of the view. She checks the good shots and deletes the ones she does not like, before taking pictures again before the birds disappear in the distance.

Finally keeping a dozen photos, the young woman puts her camera on the table and takes a moment looking at the biggest steel point that dominates the small town. This tower had been a project in Asia but Sean had managed to bribe the architect and thus, build his big project in a huge city to a small seaside town. This building now dominates AB right in the middle of the new downtown to the south, after a short discussion between the former administration of the city and the CEO of the Prescott Foundation. Sean Prescott is really a man of power, he seems so loved to show his power that he called them the " **Prescott Tower** " with his logo prominently ... as if he was not narcissistic enough.

But now, thanks to the tremendous benefits of giving "generously" money to various city foundations and the many jobs created by Sean with these countless construction sites, it seems like " _Sean the biggest dickhead of Arcadia_ " has become " _Sean the benefactor and hero of Arcadia_ ". People have almost forgotten the bad actions that the former (and current) owner of the Prescott Foundation have been able to do in the past.

If it were just that, Sean's wife, Caroline Prescott, is now the mayor of the city, giving them even more power and it's only a matter of time before all the region is in their hands. Nobody seems worried about this information, or even wondering why the Prescotts are so obsessed to acquire the area? Nobody except Juliet ...

But in short, Victoria is not in Arcadia to do politics or worry about the city, she wants to be a photographer and be recognized by her peers.

In more, the only Prescott she cares about is her boyfriend, Nathan Prescott. It's strange to say that one day, the person who looks the most like you is also made for you, it is what she felt. It happened two years ago at a party at the private villa of Taylor's mother. It was hot, the tension was rising like alcohol and one thing leading to another, they started to make out in the sauna. Two very attractive young people dressed in simple swimsuits and slightly inebriated, it must have happened.

It could have ended better if Taylor had not arrived waving her phone and saying that she had more "blackmail material" by biting her lower lip to not laugh. That evening ended with an embarrassed Nathan scratching the back of his head, embarrassingly watching Victoria promise Taylor that she would invite her to Rue Attimoro to remain silent.

A few days later, with a coffee in Victoria's dorm room and after a long discussion, they finally admit that there is something between them. They decided to have this romantic relationship that is going pretty well since all this time. Victoria is happy with this relationship, despite her many talents and her more than desirable silhouette, she had not really had a serious relationship. Some flirtations in college, several attempts (to tease her) Taylor to convert to sappism, but nothing until Nathan.

There are of course ups and downs. Having Nathan Prescott as a boyfriend also means having Sean Prescott as potential future father-in-law, and this thought gives her a thrill along the spine.

She did not have much memories of Sean Prescott the first time she met him, which was pretty normal as her age did not even have two numbers yet (she was rather interested in this " **Captain Bluberry: Agent of Hope** " anime, whose she is an unconditioned fan), during one of these evening organized by her mother Prudence Chase, rich and inflexible woman. No wonder she gets on well with Sean with so much in common. Victoria heard about him from people around her, inflammatory comments before his generous gifts, and especially his only son who told her about his many psychological abuse. The first time she remembers him was during an interaction with his son in Blackwell, Victoria caught a conversation with the two men and she felt very bad about all these innuendos when Sean intimidated Nathan to to honor his family.

Victoria would have liked to interrupt him and defend her friend but ... she felt paralyzed when Sean turned his attention to the doorway, directly to her. These frightening eyes, filled with an emotion she did not recognize but which told her to stay hidden. She could not help shaking when Sean came out and she could not breathe until he was out of reach. She felt like a coward when Nathan came to take her in his arms to calm her, she would have loved to do more for her friend.

Fortunately she has never been alone with his father since that day, she does not know how she could have reacted in his presence, there was always her boyfriend or Nathan's big sister around like Sean came in monthly to Blackwell to visit the prncipal Wells.

Looking down the street in front of her, Victoria sees a mother and her little daughter talking happily, the older lady holding a running bag with one hand and her child on the other, both walking towards the housing from Stone Estates, about a hundred yards from Blackwell (at least that's what Victoria thought). She can not remember this kind of relationship with her own mother, or even have any happy memories with her, Victoria has always been close with her father but her mother has always been cold with her, as if she was a problem to manage. Not a smile, not an affectionate caress on the head or even a kiss on the cheek. The most she had with her mother was a nod when Victoria won the fencing competition of 2008 in Seattle, nothing more since that day.

Victoria crosses her legs, she sighs while adjusting her skirt as she hates the slightest crease on her expensive clothes, a habit she has taken from her mother but she still does not know if it's good or bad. While playing with the edge of her black skirt, she would like to be more brave and strong like these animat heroes, instead of playing a role like Blackwell's Queen Bee.

As she looks at her camera at the edge of the table, Victoria suddenly remembers that she was not alone and that she was doing a photoshoot with her best friend. What a fool, how long did she stay like crazy? She does not want to have that kind of reputation until the first classes start.

Her fears are gone when she returns to see her friends have something to look after. Courtney left her notebook to flirt openly with Hayden Jones a few feet away from them, he is one of the most popular males in the academy and the passionate fashion brunette does not stand up to his charms. It's usual in knowing Courtney, knowing that she wants to put her career forward before her love life. Her boyfriend left his reading to tap vigorously on the keypad of his phone, seeing this playful look on his face, Victoria believes he sends textos with his older sister Kristine Prescott, there is always this happiness on his face when he speaks to her. She prefers to leave him alone, not wanting to disrupt their sibling time, to shift her attention to her best friend ... who talks gleefully with Rachel 'Fucking' Amber.

Hard to describe precisely who Rachel Amber is. When Victoria met her, she seemed to be the little miss perfect that everyone loves at Blackwell, pretending to know everything about everything, exemplary diligence and a flawless GPA, attentive with any kind of person, wonderful parents, a perfect body ... In short, she had all that Victoria wanted: to be loved unconditionally and recognized by her peers. Victoria was jealous at first, she had thought of ousting her in various ways more or less allowed, but she decided it was not worth it, she wants to be recognized by her own merit and not by grabbing the one of another.

Things have changed a little since Rachel decided to make a road trip in full school with this blue haired loser less than a year ago, they disappeared for almost six months before returning to Arcadia but unfortunately for Miss Amber, this long absence left sequelae on her academic record and she must spent a new year at Blackwell. Victoria thought it would have looked bad for Rachel, but she seems even more popular than before ...

... But that's not why she hates Rachel.

The female co-leader of the Vortex Club gets up by taking her camera and walks towards the two blonde. As she approaches, she sees how much the two girls are physically similar, that it is to several characteristics of the face at the level of their form, the only physical differences are the color/haircut, the size (her best friend is visibly taller) and their sense of fashion. Although Taylor goes from girly to trend, she has adopted Victoria's style (for the pleasure of her friend) but with her personal touch, while Rachel goes according to her mood. Anyway, everything suits her perfectly.

"... unlike her, I have to be careful about what I eat, nobody has a metabolism like-" Rachel pauses when she sees the queen of the Academy coming to meet them. "Hey Tori, I love your outfit darling, very entrepreneur."

"Thank you" Victoria answers simply, but she is not sure if she looks like a person with a position of authority.

She chose a white collar-collar shirt under a dark red long-sleeved shirt (she had not put on her expensive bracelets to hide her awful wrists) and a black blazer over it. The skirt going to mid-thigh is matching with the blazer and boots complete her outfit, she did not feel wearing something more sophisticated before school, she wanted to be relaxed.

As for her best friend, Taylor wears a off shoulder knitted sweater dress white with Prada's long green jacket that Victoria bought for her birthday last year. It's against at Taylor to hide her legs but she felt obliged to wear black waders, as Victoria pointed out to her that her dress was quite short (without being mean, she does not mean that she looks like to a prostitute either), but Taylor had just shrugged, not taking bad her comment.

There was even a joke about Taylor's long legs, which should be one of the seven new wonders of the modern world (Victoria pretty much agrees with that opinion), and even Zachary & Logan did a survey to find out "Who has Blackwell's sexiest legs?" In trio of head, 7% voted for Rachel, 18% for Dana and with a vast overwhelming majority, three quarters voted for Taylor. Of course, that reinforced her friend to wear mini-shorts for her own pleasure.

The pixie blonde takes a quick look at the look of her interlocutor before answering.

"On the other hand, your sense of fashion goes from charybod to scylla, your girlfriend has sold all your clothes so you can pay the rent?"

Honestly, she has nothing against Rachel's dress style but she does not like Rachel & Taylor's closeness, her nasty side is quickly taking over. The very popular blonde currently wears a black punk-rock t-shirt ( **A/N: I have enough laziness to describe this piece of clothing, this is the t-shirt "Rachel's Shirt at the Junkyard" found in LiS episode 2 at the junkyard, near the spot where Max sees the doe for the first time** ), with a pink hoodie over it, as well as denim shorts, a pair of black high socks and a pair of brown boots to complete the outfit. A light eye makeup, a simple black necklace around her neck and her inseparable single blue feathered earring on her left ear with a golden pheasant tippet at the top are also present (Victoria has always wondered what this earring means to Rachel, but she will never ask her the question).

Taylor frowns at her friend's attacks. Of course she will take Victoria's side, being her friend and all, but she does not know why the pixie blonde is so mean to Rachel.

"It's nice to worry about us, Tori" the popular blonde responds with a soft smile, not revealing Victoria's sarcasm. She is so used that she finds it rather funny than anything else "but no, my junkyard queen has no trouble meeting our needs, you have no worries to make you."

"Ha, there's no problem for a l-"

"Why do not we resume our photoshoot, Victoria?" Taylor interrupts her before starting an unnecessary argument, looking hard at her friend with a look of reproach.

Victoria pursed her lips by looking away to her camera to adjust it again. She hates when her friend uses her full name because it often means she's gone too far and she has to calm down before doing anything she may regret.

"Yes Tori, it's not nice to leave Tay alone to go to daydream in your corner" Rachel smiles again seeing Victoria's grin every time she calls her Tori, she also takes the opportunity to pass her arm around the waist of the platinum blonde to annoy again the queen bee "who knows what would happen to her, a predator could have devoured her without your knowledge."

Taylor turns her head so that the malicious blonde does not notice her cheeks blush, she also does not see that her friend is annoyed by the physical closeness between them.

"No matter, get away a bit to prevent it from becoming a porn" the pixie blonde advises Rachel too sticky to her taste.

"Would not you mind Tay, right?" Rachel whispers quietly in her ear, but she moves slightly away while keeping her arm around the size of the platinum blonde. "But Kitty Vicky is right, let's try to keep our passion at the PG-13 level."

Taylor sighs silently relaxing, she knows very well that Rachel is teasing towards her and that there is nothing serious in her flirts. It's pretty much their relationship, they both tease and have easy flirting, but it's just in their personality. But when it comes to Rachel, Taylor becomes more shy with her contact, she can not lie by saying that she would like to be more than friends with Rachel ... but she knows that it will never happen, Rachel's heart belongs to someone else.

For the next ten minutes, Victoria takes pictures of two blondes positioning themselves in different ways.

Taylor and Rachel turned in profile, their heads turned towards the camera lens, and Taylor's arms around the shoulders of the popular blonde (as the platinum blonde stuck to Rachel's back), Rachel pretending to be angry and Taylor leans forward, shielding her head from the hypothetical blows the other blonde might have given, Taylor brushing a strand of hair with her right hand behind her ear as she relaxes as Rachel lays her elbow on Taylor's left shoulder, pulling out the tongue and making a sign of the horns with the other hand.

Then comes the more suggestive poses: Taylor's eyes looking away and never trying to escape from Rachel's grip on her chin to keep her head straight to the camera, while the Popular blonde plants her lips on her cheek. Then the two girls look at each other, this time Taylor tenderly placing her hand on Rachel's cheek and the two of them looking deep into each other's eyes, pretending to kiss each other soon.

For the last series of photos (much to Victoria's relief), they performed a close dance, a slow with Rachel as the leader. They started to laugh before becoming serious, Rachel suddenly taking Taylor's leg to put it around her waist, looking deep into her eyes again. But this time, Rachel's eyes fixed on those of the other blonde, Victoria can not know precisely if the mood has changed or they still play the comedy.

The pixie blonde especially wants to throw her fist against Rachel and shout to her to leave her best friend alone. Fortunately, she will not have to do it.

"Ohlala, the temperature is warming up here" Courtney says teasingly as she arrives with the two boys.

"Do this in a room" Hayden goes on quickly, smiling, amused by the situation.

Seeing his girlfriend not having any fun at the turn of the situation, Nathan decides to intervene and applied what his older sister taught him.

"Calm down" he said diplomatically, the others calm down quickly, respecting his word. "Why do not we take a group photo? Let's immortalize our last year together."

The gang obey and place themselves to each other, Victoria positions her camera on the table and starts the timer before joining his friends. They separate ten seconds after the shutter release and all admire the new photo. Victoria holding a pose of trust in the center of the photo with her arms crossed (and hands holding elbows) under the chest, letting out a small smile. To the right of the picture stands Nathan, holding his girlfriend by the waist and one hand on her hip, Taylor occupying the other side of the pixie blonde by putting an arm around her shoulders and making the V sign of victory just above her left eye. Courtney, being next to the platinum blonde, is leaning slightly so that her head is placed under the bust of her friend in the photo, and makes the same sign as Taylor with both hands. On the other side of Nathan, Rachel holds a pose on the side with her hand on her hip and winks at the camera while pretending to blow a kiss with her free hand, and Hayden spreads his arms in a humorous way, smiling with all his teeth.

Once everyone was satisfied, and the promise of the queen bee sent a copy of the last picture by mail, Hayden left to join a group of girls making signs to him from afar and Rachel left on her side down the steps that allows her to leave off the property of the academy.

"Sorry honey, but I promised my sister to join her" the son of the Prescott family says to his girlfriend putting his phone in the pocket of his jacket "talk more tar, kay?"

"I'll be able to survive until tomorrow" she gives him a wink before moving on with a quick kiss on the lips "spend a good evening."

"Yeah, you too!" he gives her a wave of the hand before entering Blackwell's main building.

She sends him back a lazy wave, she watches him enter the building before returning to the table to put her camera in her little black messenger bag and take the rest of her things. She feels pretty happy that her boyfriend is relaxed enough in the last few months, it was hard enough to support him when she has her own family problems with her mother, but she has always been with him when things went wrong. Things have improved greatly since his sister returned from Brazil, and Nathan can also count on Samantha's support, even though she is now at Martin Lewis University, on the outskirts of the city.

Having a university in Arcadia was not really necessary (as well as most infrastructures) but as always, the Prescotts have the last word. Again a story of renown.

In fact, according to what Taylor had told her, her mother helped the Prescott to convince the rest of the administration to accede to their request for the university ... as well as for several "secret projects" to be implemented in city. Helen Christensen is a very rich and influential woman, she is one of the first founding families of the city and that kind of thing brings her favours, besides she owns several shops in town and she always had a good relationship with Sean.

Victoria has nothing against Samantha, although she can see that she has something for her boyfriend but contrary to what people may think, Nathan is a loyal person. When she turns to the girls who are waiting for her, Taylor looks at her with an air filled of innuendo as Courtney finishes taking her business affairs.

"What is this look?" the pixie blonde asks her friend, not really understanding what she's trying to tell her.

"Nothing, you are both good, that's all."

"Then why do I feel like I'm doing something wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong with you Vicky" the platinum blonde adds trying to carefully choose her next word. "It's just that at the beginning, your friendship was, kind, fraternal and seeing you together as in a relationship is enough ... strange?"

The bossy girl frowns at Taylor, not furious at her remark but not really happy either.

"I mean" Taylor brushes her hair behind her ear trying to explain to her clearly "we're friends and I say that because I care about you both, but you look more like a senior couple waiting for the end of their lives, than young people passionately in love."

"So, we take things slowly and being in a relationship does not mean that we have to make love every time the opportunity arises!"

"No, that's not what I meant" Taylor is irritated that her friend does not get the message, she has trouble explaining on a subject like love.

"She means you're happier when you get a notification of a new minifigure for sale online than hold your hand to your boyfriend" Courtney appears interfering with the conversation without embarrassing herself.

Taylor shakes her head, the little brunette at purple strands has no problem being direct with her friends instead of beating around the bush. Say that a few years ago, Victoria would have reprimanded Courtney to talk to her so easily and she tried to confirm her position alpha woman to her and Taylor, but the two girls did not take into account her seriousness and the have taken by humor. They act rather with humor and make antics when Victoria tries to be authoritarian, she gave up.

"That's wrong, I'm very happy with Nate" Victoira blushed with embarrassment. She is happy to be with Nathan, why they try to make him say the opposite.

"We do not say that to hurt you Vic, but you're not so passionate since you're together, you do not seem to expect anything more from life" the platinum blonde approaches the other blonde to pat her affectionately shoulder. "And to be honest, Nathan also noticed it and asked me to let you know if I have the opportunity."

Victoria looks at her two friends in turn, before going between them to walk to the dormitories. She does not pay attention to those around her, she did not even hear Courtney scream in dismay when she was jostled by a person in a hooded jacket so much that she was in her thoughts.

If she had to be honest, Victoria has already thought about the depth of her relationship with her best male friend. They had their good time and she always liked it in a special way but it's true that in the last eight months she feels like she's in a bind. These two years with him were great but in truth, she does not feel the passion of love as she always wished when she wanted to be in a relationship, no spark and no fireworks. To be honest, they never went as far as second base because she was too nervous to go further (it was scary to reveal to Nathan that she is still a virgin, but he supported her).

She never trusted in love, her father explained things to her but looking at her parents relationship, Victoria feels that there is no love between them, even if her father reassures her that her mother is not very demonstrative. Her topics of discussion with her mother are politics and work, so she will not help her.

And she felt ashamed to ask at her friends.

If she never thought further than that, it's because she did not want to hide from Nate that she does not love him as much as he loves, but now that Taylor told that her boyfriend noted it, maybe it's time to have a serious discussion.

"I have to talk to Nate but you think he'll resent me" Victoria speaks after a minute or two of reflection as she stops walking.

"I think he can feel the same, Vicky" Courtney responds, shrugging her shoulders, Victoria stares at her to continue but her friend adds nothing more.

The pixie blonde only notices now that they are in front of the Prescott Dormitory, under the tree that Taylor is used to sitting down to think in peace. She should be less distracted or she may have problems.

"Okay stop" Taylor says as she settles quietly against the tree sitting on her legs. "Talking about the next night, what should we plan?"

"DJ, smoke machine and light effects to start, then choose a nice place to organize it. Kind the football field, it would be nice to have an open field to change, the time is ideal right now" the brunette says thinking about the field in front of the campus.

"You forget the curfew, sweety" platinum blonde reminds her kindly, her answer is an annoying growl grunt of the brunette. "Unless people are up to go home at 7pm!"

Victoria is rather busy trying to sit down without dirtying her expensive clothes, which she manages to do but she wonders why her friends could not choose to sit on a bench so as not to dirty their clothes? Would she be the only one to worry about that?

While her friends are trying to find a solution for the party venue, such as the academy pool or the dorms, Victoria lets her mind wander again on less academic topics. As if her best platinum blonde friend is wearing underwear under her dress, Taylor had told her that once she did not wear panties during gym classes, but Victoria still does not know if she's teasing her as always. Wait, why is she thinking of that already? Never mind.

They knew each other at the beginning of college with Taylor, but they had never been so close since the divorce of the parents of the platinum blonde a little over four years ago. Victoria was there for her friend until Taylor recovered, it only lasted a few weeks and it was a relief for Victoria. It's not because she does not like comforting people but she feels she is not good at it, Victoria hopes she was not too stupid to support her friend. Taylor seemed better since she came back from her first weekend in Seattle with her father, she told her that this stay made her grow up. Victoria has not received any more information except that Taylor has made a new friend. It was also at this moment that Taylor stopped following her blindly and having her own personality and her own opinions. It's also since that day that she has been more teasing towards her. Alas!

A year later, she saw her wearing a "BFF" style bracelet on the left wrist, a small gold bracelet with half Yang. Victoria never sought to know who could carry the other half, she also felt a little jealous that someone else was closer to her best friend than herself. Taylor reassured him that it was a different friendship.

As for Courtney, she met him last year when she arrived at Blackwell, the little brunette coming to Blackwell to realize her dreams with strength and determination. She was frank with Victoria, wanting to be part of the Vortex Club at all costs, but the pixie blonde was not impressing. She had told her that she should change her tone and respect her elders, Courtney looked at her disdainfully before leaving and she would not give up. Victoria loved her audacity but was not impressed by her condescending tone. Then one day, she finally discovered a secret about Courtney inadvertently, Victoria felt that the brunette was defenseless and vulnerable, held at the mercy of the blonde. But understanding what she shares, Victoria reached out to Courtney and they became friends. She introduced her to Taylor and they have since become an inseparable trio. She finally learned that Courtney comes from a poor family with seven children, and she wants to stand out from her other brothers/sister as she is the middle child whose parents seldom notice, she did her own business in her corner and when she collected enough money, she was able to join the Blackwell Academy.

Her thoughts are interrupted when she sees a bearded man in a check shirt with a girl who has tied her long hair in a ponytail, walking towards the entrance of the dormitories with boxes on their arms. The girl is wearing a pair of worn leggings and a little white crop top with an anchor drawn in front, Victoria wonders what makes her look at the girls' clothes right now.

Strangely, she can not help but think about the dream she had earlier by looking at these two people. Victoria shudders as she rethinks her disturbing vision, she is no stranger to morbid nightmares, but this is the first time she has looked at him like a spectator.

"Courtney" she interrupts the lively conversation between her two friends, pointing to the newcomer "do you have any information about this girl?"

The first secretary of the Vortex Club looks at the dormitory door, spotting the person with a big cardboard to her arms. She takes a notebook from her inseparable little black shoulder bag, her special notebook where she collects all the information Victoria needs, and she opens the page (mark of a bookmark) with a photo (attach to a paper clip) of the girl in question.

"Hmmmmm, I do not have a lot of info, she's called Maxine, she comes studied photography with a scholarship and ..." she said, scratching her head, raising an eyebrow of surprise. "Wait, she would be responsible for an incident that would have put three wounded in the hospital."

This attracted the curiosity of the two blondes, but while Courtney is interested in the incident and Victoria is troubled by the same name as in her waking dream, neither of the two girls saw the expression of surprise on the face of the platinum blonde on behalf of the newcomer.

Wanting to know if this new student could cause problems at the academy, Victoria gets up quickly to readjust her clothes.

"Are you coming girls? Go tell this girl about Blackwell's rules?" the pixie blonde walks toward the front door of the dormitories, not looking behind her.

Her friends rush to her side to lead the investigation, Courtney is surprised to see Victoria so quickly interested in a new student but she is curious to see where it goes, while Taylor is more excited by this meeting with the new girl .

But her reasons are vastly different from two other girls ...

 **...**

 **Notes: This first chapter must have been longer at the beginning, but by dint of writing long stories without knowing what you think, it demoralizes. In addition, do not show too much from the beginning. I know it's different for most of you not to see Max or Chloe (see even Rachel now) in the first chapter of a story, and I admit it's a bit wanted. I just want to show that even though they are only secondary characters to girls, Life is Strange & Before The Storm also have other characters who have an interesting story if we think for a minute.**

 **For Taylor's tattoo, if you've found the reference, I'll think about a suggestion from your favorite pairing (I'm not saying I'll do it, but if you have arguments to convince me, I'll think about it) or one of your suggestions.**


End file.
